


Tricks Usually Don't Help You in the Game of Hearts

by psychomachia



Category: Ready or Not (2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, F/M, Pre-Canon, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:34:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22607092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psychomachia/pseuds/psychomachia
Summary: Grace is not a cheater, but she is willing to bend the rules. Daniel's not even sure what game he's playing.
Relationships: Daniel Le Domas/Grace Le Domas
Comments: 15
Kudos: 400
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 5





	Tricks Usually Don't Help You in the Game of Hearts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cricket_aria](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cricket_aria/gifts).



### Doppelkopf

The first mistake Daniel is listening to his brother.

Really, the first mistake was being born to a family that uses ritual sacrifice and murder as a bonding experience, but this has the potential to be more painfully awkward.

“Daniel, come on. You've been cooped up in your apartment for months. Mom's worried.”

“Yeah, I got that,” he says. “Probably worried she'll get a front page story about how of a member of the Le Domas ended up dead on their bathroom floor, covered in vomit.”

“Daniel--”

“Hey, it's me or Emilie and I think the odds have finally settled on me.”

“Look,” his brother says, in that kind and patient 'I'm not your older brother but our mother really wishes I was' voice. “Just come out with us tonight. It's not going to be a big thing. Just me and Grace.”

Grace. Daniel wants to sort of laugh from the absurdity of it all. Maybe the thing about being a Le Domas is that you're always looking for a quality you don't possess by trying to marry it?

Good thing he didn't try for Hope. He lost that a long time ago.

“Grace, huh. You'd really want to inflict your depressed alcoholic brother on her? I thought you were trying to get serious with this one.” Apparently, she's smart and beautiful and just so funny and caring and how the hell did she get involved in with someone in their family?

“It was her idea,” Alex says.

Well, fuck. She's insane. That explains it.

* * *

“Your idea? What are you, crazy?”

Of course, Alex picks a nice bar, gets a great table and their drinks right away, and then immediately has to leave to take a call. He probably thinks that Daniel's too depressed and self-loathing to do anything stupid, like make a pass or say something hideously insensitive. Joke's on him.

And Grace... she's someone you want to be reckless around. He saw it when she walked in the room, gorgeous blonde on Alex's arm, looking nervous, like she was about to jump out of her skin. A nice girl, probably. Too good for any of them. Daniel shifted in his seat.

Then she saw him and smiled.

Like you would if you'd just seen an old friend after a very long time.

Daniel chugged the rest of his whiskey.

Now, it's just the two of them, sitting at the table, while the only thing that connects them has absconded into the night. Grace keeps looking at him, and he's not sure what to make of the look. It's not judgmental like half of Alex's previous girlfriends or pitying, like the other half. It's just...

No. He's not going to go there. Not seriously. Cheesy pick-up lines are one thing, but he's done trying to make anything last.

Grace shrugs a little, takes a sip from her own drink. “Alex told me about you,” she says quietly.

“Told you what?” Daniel hears the bitterness in his voice and yeah, this was a terrible idea. “That his drunken idiot of a brother needed to have a fun night out before he drank himself to death?

“That--” She starts, then swallows nervously. “That someone recently dumped you .”

Of fucking course.

“Well, it's not a big loss,” he says. “It's not like she wanted anything more than my money. Not that I had anything else to give her. Or didn't you know about me?”

Grace doesn't say anything for a while. She just stares at him, and Daniel wants to reach for his drink, but he's trapped in her gaze, its cool weight of...

What the fuck has Alex told her? Anything? Everything? He opens his mouth to try to make some crack about--

“I know,” she says. “But I don't think you do.”

Definitely insane.

He meets her eyes. Doesn't look away.

“How's it going?”

They both jump.

Alex, in his impeccable ability to make awkward moments even more awkward, comes back, putting his phone back in his pocket. “Sorry about that,” he says sheepishly. “You know how Mom is.”

Daniel sees Grace's eyes narrow, just for a second, before she pastes on a bright smile. “It's all right,” she says, getting up to kiss him on the cheek. “We were just getting to know each other.”

“Well, I hope he didn't say anything too terrible about me.” Alex sits down, pats Daniel on the shoulder. Daniel takes the opportunity to finish his drink.

“Of course not.” Grace keeps smiling. “Your family's great at keeping secrets.”

Seriously, what the fuck.

Daniel makes a motion to their waiter. He's going to need way more alcohol to get through this night.

* * *

In the morning, Daniel's got a splitting headache. He pops two ibuprofen, checks his phone.

_Hope you're okay. Don't worry think things went great. Grace seemed really happy._

Daniel shakes his head, regrets it instantly. “Alex,” he says. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

He scrolls to the next text.

_Hey, it's Grace. I got your number from Alex. If you're feeling better, you want to meet up for coffee?_

There is no way this is actually happening. She's not hitting on him, she probably just feels bad after last night or this is Alex's way of checking up on him. He'll say yes, and then it'll be another uncomfortable meeting at a table, only this time he can't get drunk.

No, he thinks. He's done making stupid mistakes, or at least ones that he's not obligated to by blood and some fucked-up tradition he can never escape. This one's completely avoidable. He'll ignore her text, or better yet, just let her know to stop texting him.

_Sorry, Grace._

_Leave me alone._

_This isn't going to end well._

_Yes._

### Königrufen

“We're outside.”

“Yes,” Grace says patiently. “It's a picnic. That's where people usually have them.”

“Why?”

“I imagine because the sun's out and it's a nice breeze and it's good to get fresh air and exercise.”

Daniel used to claim he was the undisputed champion of sarcasm, but Grace has really forced him to step up his game lately. “No, why are we on a picnic? For that matter, why did we go to that art museum? Or for sushi last week? Why the hell do you keep dragging me to these places?”

“Why don't you say no?” she counters. “I'm not forcing you to do any of this.”

“No,” he says. “But you should be doing this with my brother. He's--”

“Busy,” Grace says, yawning. “We're not joined at the hip. So relax and enjoy this really nice day before it turns to shit.”

Daniel would love to, but he can't. More and more, there's a creeping chill at the bottom of his spine, like something or someone's watching him, waiting for... he doesn't know what. For him to screw up? That's inevitable.

Still, it's something more than that. Every time Grace texts him, he wants to tell her no, but he can't. It's something in the way she looks at him every time they meet up. It's different than when she's with Alex. With him, she smiles, but it never reaches her eyes.

Sometimes, it's even sad and he wants to know what his brother's done that's put that in her eyes. Daniel's the disappointing one, the one that fucks up time and again. Not Alex.

But Alex isn't the one she's laughing with over coffee. He's not the one she takes pictures of when she thinks Daniel's not watching. He's not watching bad movies or drinking in dive bars or mutually shuddering passing by a game store and seeing a Le Domas product in the window.

_“I know why I hate seeing this shit,” Daniel muttered, “but why the hell do you?”_

_“Don't ask,” Grace said. “It's a really long story and you wouldn't understand.”_

_“Right.”_

_That night, Daniel learned that Grace smoked like a chimney when stressed._

Most importantly, Alex isn't the one that realizes Grace has fallen asleep, her blonde hair pillowing onto the grass. Her hand's outstretched, gently resting near Daniel's. He resists the impulse to take it into his own.

Instead, he does something dumber. He shifts her gently, lets her head rest on his leg. She's warm in the sunlight and he closes his eyes.

Daniel has no fucking idea what he's doing.

He hopes to God that she does.

* * *

“I don't get it,” Alex says. “What am I doing wrong?”

“This is why you called me out?” Daniel sighs. “You made it sound like it was an emergency. I thought you were going to tell me that Emilie had burned our house down or something.”

Alex looks at him blankly. “No. Our family's fine.”

“That's a shame,” Daniel says.

“Daniel!”

“Fine, fine. So what's so pressing that you called me out this early?”

“It's after noon.”

“Like I said.”

“It's Grace.”

The bottom drops out of Daniel's stomach. There's a sickening sensation in it. He hasn't been doing anything wrong, so why does it feel like-- “Grace? What's wrong?”

Alex slumps over. “I don't know,” he says. “I feel like she's pulling away from me. Like there's this distance between us that's growing.”

“I'm sure that's not true,” Daniel looks away. “I mean, you've been busy lately, but I'm sure she understands that.”

“I don't know. I've been talking to Mom.”

“Well, there's your problem.” There's a tickling at the back of his brain, something wanting to force its way to the front, but it's gone before Daniel can really examine it. “I thought you weren't really speaking to our parents anymore?”

“Yeah,” Alex looks distant. “It's complicated.”

“Whatever.” Daniel shrugs. “Look, just talk to Grace. Ask her what's wrong.” Don't ask her about all the time we've been spending together or how she's far too smart to stick around either one of us or--

“I think I'm going to ask her to marry me.”

The bottom falls away entirely, leaving nothing but the sense of plummeting into darkness.

* * *

Daniel would like to say that he took it well. That he congratulated his brother, wished him all the best, and took it as a sign that whatever weird shit was going on between him and Grace, it was over now.

_“You have to be fucking kidding me!”_

_“Keep your voice down,” Alex hisses. “Don't make a scene.”_

_“I'm sorry. Did you forget about what happens to the people that marry into our family? I wish I could.”_

“Yeah, that went well,” he says, throwing his phone across the room. He has already blocked his brother's reproachful texts, so the next step is a full-on call offensive that he doesn't need to hear. I know you don't think this is right. I don't want to lose her.

It cracks somewhere in the distance ,but really, does he need to see his brother's reproachful texts? Or even more delightfully, to see something like 'I know you don't think this is right, but it'll be fine.'

“Right, Alex. Invite the woman you say you love more than anything into our fucked-up family and oh, by the way, have you told her about her possible death at our hands? No? Waiting for the right moment to tell her? Who knows, maybe she'll luck out and she'll just have to murder someone instead.”

His glass is empty. Well, that's going to have to change.

There's a knock at his door.

“Go away, Alex,” he yells. “I'm not in the mood.”

“Open the door, Daniel.”

Fuck.

He stumbles over, undoes the locks, opens it wide to...

Grace. She's in gray hoodie, jeans, and her hair's loose and free around her face. She looks tired.

She doesn't look like someone who said yes after being proposed to by the love of her life.

“Grace,” he manages to say.

She shuts the door behind her, locks it, and looks him dead in the eye. “What happened with you and Charity?”

“I don't--”

“You told Alex she dumped you because you wouldn't marry her. Was that true?” Her eyes are wild, and he takes a step back.

“Grace, it wasn't that simple.”

“Was that true?”

He takes a few more steps back, until he's up against the wall. Daniel doesn't know why he's running, why he feels he needs to get away from... from what?

The truth? He's been doing that his whole life.

“No,” he says. “I dumped her.”

“Why?” She doesn't move her eyes, doesn't give him a chance to evade her stare.

“It wasn't right,” he says weakly. “I couldn't give her what she wanted.”

“You couldn't marry her, you mean.”

“How did you?” Grace knows too much, sees everything they try to hide, and he's betrayed people, led someone to their death, and yet this is what scares him. Nothing to hide behind and he's dead sober for all of it.

“Why couldn't you marry her?”

_Because she only loved my name and what I could give her and I thought I was fine with it, since a game should only be played if you don't care if you lose._

_Because no one deserves to marry into our family and deal with our personal shit and maybe we should just all die out, let cursed blood dissolve into nothing if you want to get dramatic about it._

_Because I tried to ask her and the words wouldn't come out of my mouth. I was choking on them, I couldn't breathe and all I could think I deserve to be alone, to die with no one there, but..._

He doesn't realize he's hunched over, trying to gasp for air, until Grace's voice reaches him. “Daniel, breathe,” she says. She's got her hand on his back, rubbing it gently, and it's the touch of her hand that centers him, gets him to calm until it's quiet.

“Grace,” he says.

“I said no.” Her voice is low, but there's nothing soft about it. “And I think you know why.”

He does, but...

“How the hell do you?”

Grace takes his hand, pulls him straight up until they're face to face. She's got a sad smile on her face. “Like I said, it's a really long story.”

### Oh Hell (Devil's Bridge variation)

“So you believe me.”

“Sure.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“No fucking way. I just told you I time traveled to the fucking past and the reason I've been hanging out with you so much is seeing if you remember anything and your response is, sure?”

It's can't be that simple. Grace looks at him. She's just spent the last several months freaking out, because she's currently dating a guy that oh, decided that he wanted to murder her after all and she has to restrain herself from screaming at him, “You utter fucking asshole, I wish I could watch your family explode and then burn your house down all over again.”

Daniel just kind of smiles. It's not a really happy one, but he seems at least a little amused and fond and not like he's going to immediately pick up the phone and dial his psychotic family. “Grace, my family has a longstanding tradition of demonic ritual sacrifice involving a children's game. I'm not going to question any weird shit that crops up.”

“Fair point.” Grace lies back on the couch. “So at least you get why I can't marry your brother.” The look on Alex's face when she said no—she'd almost feel bad for him if she didn't remember the last time she saw him before she wound up here. The naked pleading for his life, the disregard for her own, his cowardice in the face of his family--

No. She can feel pity for how the family destroys people, but that doesn't excuse him. Daniel didn't betray her in the end and she wasn't even with him.

Daniel spins the glass around in his hand. “Yeah,” he says softly. “I guess I do.” His face is sadder now. “You know, he's not a terrible person.”

“No,” she replies and she leans forward to capture Daniel's glance. “He's not. He's just...” and Grace isn't sure if she can finish that sentence because Daniel is looking at the bottom of his glass like he wants to fill it with something he can drown in and it's so unfair that he's the one that's had to live with making a horrible choice all his life while Alex is shielded from any of those decisions.

Yeah, he's not terrible, she thinks. He's weak and coddled and she loved him, she really did, but his way of coping with rejection is to kill you and fuck, if even she had drawn a different card and they had a boring night and a great honeymoon, when would he have told her the truth?

When they were hunting down someone else and he'd say, we're so blessed it wasn't you?

“Alex,” Grace says, after the silence is too long, too filled with regret. “I'm not going to be talking to him again. I can't.”

“I know,” Daniel says and he looks and sounds so tired, that she just wants him to...

Well, she's not with Alex anymore and Daniel knows the truth so fuck it. “Come over here,” Grace says.

“What?” He blinks at her sudden change in tone.

“Daniel.”

I guess it's a good thing he's used to following orders, Grace thinks, because Daniel comes over and sits next to her on the couch. She pulls him in, puts his head on her shoulder.

“Uh, Grace?”

“Get some sleep,” she says. “We'll go get breakfast in the morning.”

“What?”

Look, in any break-up, Grace thinks, there's always a division of stuff: who gets to keep the apartment, who still goes to the really nice Italian restaurant on the corner, and who gets to hang out with the brother whose qualities she's only beginning to explore.

Alex gets the apartment. He gets the restaurant.

He doesn't get Daniel.

It's only fair.

* * *

She doesn't see Alex anymore after that.

A few erased voice messages, a hundred deleted texts, and one very nimble dodging at a coffee shop, and he gives up. It's not a great surprise. She's problaby too much work.

And if Daniel sees him, he's polite enough not to mention it. He doesn't really talk about his brother anymore period, and she doesn't ask. Grace can't see it going over great if Alex found out that yeah, she broke up with him, but not his brother.

Though the way that kind of sounds...

It should be more off-putting but it's not. Daniel's sort of the point of stability in that fucked-up stormy ocean that is her existence right now, not so much a rock or an island as a buoy, bobbing back and forth with the currents, but always anchored, so she can find her way back.

Yeah, that metaphor kind of went in an odd place, she thinks. But whatever. Grace doesn't care about impressing people anymore.

So new Grace, new path, new life.

This Grace gets a tiny apartment, barely big enough to fit her and maybe a cat (but that's a commitment she's not ready to make yet). It doesn't come with expensive furniture or an admittedly awesome stereo system, but it does have a variety of terrible coffee mugs.

This Grace is drinking coffee from a purple Tiki mug while she goes online to buy tickets to some sort of bad movie schlockfest. She's going to buy one for now; maybe Daniel will be able to come, maybe he won't, but she's going to go either way and have a damn good time.

This Grace is hanging out over at Daniel's, watching some cooking show and not feeling guilty at all when they order Chinese but still make fun of someone's terrible attempt at risotto. She's eating crab wontons and Daniel is surprisingly only drinking tea, and at some point, she's laughing and reading out her fortune, “You will be lucky in love,” and how fucking hilarious is that. It's so funny that she has to lean over and kiss him.

“Grace,” he says, when she pulls away, the cold trickle of realization creeping down her spine. “I don't know...”

Shit. She's suddenly embarrassed because yeah, he used to always make passes at her in that other time, but they're both completely sober and there's no excuse for this and she's probably blinking back tears because fuck, this is so messed-up--

He kisses her back.

* * *

It's not just a kiss though.

It would be so easy the next day to look at each other and mutually agree that they had made a terrible mistake and they should just stay friends because what they had was too valuable and no, that's not going to happen because they live in a world where you can make a deal with the actual devil and travel through time to break up with someone you watched explode.

If nothing makes sense now, than nothing has to ever make sense.

So fuck it.

The next night, she comes over and they make out on the couch some more. The pizza gets cold and she's missed half of Chopped, but Daniel is surprisingly good at this and maybe she should have taken him up on his offer back then as well?

Might have at least been distraction from all the creepy staring that she somehow didn't take as a sign to run the fuck away.

One week later and he's given her a terrible hickey and a less terrible scarf to cover up.

“It's the middle of the damn summer, Daniel, it's a heatwave out there and you want me to put on more layers?”

“You don't have to cover it,” he says, all innocence. “I'd be just as happy if you didn't.”

“Of course you would,” she snorts.

Two weeks later, she's taken off her shirt in his bedroom, letting Daniel see her in all her naked glory and he applauds. She throws a pillow at him.

“What?” Daniel asks, in a mock-offended tone. “Didn't that museum teach us to appreciate works of art?”

“Oh, fuck you,” she says, and giddily decides that maybe she'll do just that.

One month later, she's on top of him, holding his arms down. He could get free anytime he wants to, but he's not even trying and she takes full advantage of it. There's something so gorgeous in seeing him there, all hers, and she kisses him deeply for it.

“Grace,” and it sounds like he's praying for something that's just within reach.

She lets her hands go up off his shoulders, runs them down until she's holding each hand with her own and they grip tightly together. There's no rings, no promises, and marriage is still a word of fear on both of their lips.

But still, she could do this forever.

Just the two of them, holding on to each other.

Days, weeks, months later and she's looking at the calendar in her apartment, thinking this would have been my wedding day.

Today was the day I almost died.

Today...

Maybe someone hasn't just walked over her grave, but it definitely feels like someone's digging one for her right now because she's shaking, chilled all over, and there's something definitely wrong.

Grace picks up her phone, calls Daniel.

It rings and rings. Goes to voicemail.

“Daniel,” she says. “Call me.”

Then she sits down on her tiny couch,wraps a blanket around herself and watches her phone.

Five minutes later, it rings.

Not his number. Or one she recognizes, but the same way she knows that today isn't going to be an ordinary day, she knows she'll have to pick it up.

“Hello,” Grace says.

“Why don't you come on home,” Becky answers. “Sort this whole mess out with me. Winner takes all.”

### Ombre

The Le Domas house is just as stupidly impressive as she remembers it and really, Grace thinks the cops would understand if she just plowed her car straight through the front door and cut out all of the formalities.

Maybe get a head start on the next little fun game they're going to play.

But she parks it because shit, she's not getting locked out of a way home this time and steels herself. She can do this.

There's a murderous family that still wants to kill her and a very good chance that Daniel's stuck in the middle of all of this, but at least she's not getting married and running around in a wedding dress that just screamed “virginal but that's not the important part” sacrifice.

Now Grace has dark jeans, a hoodie, and a very sweet pair of running shoes, so she's set.

When she walks in, it's quiet. Too quiet, if her horror movie logic holds up.

There's a part of her that's tempted to start searching the house, look for traps and ambushes and people hiding in the shadows, but it's Becky.

She knows Grace. She's not going to bother with that.

There's only one room the endgame's going to be in

The dining room's dimly lit and Becky's sitting there at the head of the table. A box is to the left of her, but the chairs are all empty.

There's no one around.

“Come in, Grace,” she says. “Mind your step.”

Below Grace's feet, there are piles of ash, gray and scattered throughout the room.

“Behold,” Becky adds, sweeping her arm around. There's a glass of wine in front of her and an empty bottle at her feet. “Here lies the Le Domas family. Made a fucking deal and finally paid the price thanks to my son's poor choices.”

Grace laughs. “Really? Alex came back to you in the end, didn't he? Oh, that's right. You were dead for that part. Yeah, tried to sacrifice me and everything to keep your family going. You must be so proud.”

Becky just smiles sweetly. “I already knew. He told me. ”

Grace stops still. She reaches blindly back, fumbles for a chair and sits down. “Alex remembers? Wait, how the hell do you remember?”

“Oh, Grace, you think a game is any fun when only one person is playing? You never could have understood our family. Not the way I did. No, you and I are playing a game and we each get a piece to put on the board. Alex is mine and yours?” Becky shakes her head. “I would have picked a stronger one.”

And Grace closes her eyes because of course that's why she went back. “No,” she whispers. “This isn't—where's Daniel?”

“He's talking to his brother,” Becky laughs. “I imagine they quite a bit to discuss. Like how they've both slept with the same woman. Really, Grace? You were that desperate to marry into our family?”

“Fuck you,” Grace says. “If he does anything to Daniel--”

“It's not up to you.” Becky picks up the box next to her opens it and removes a deck of cards. “It's not up to me either, if that makes you feel better. I doubt it will, so that's a relief to me.”

“I'm not--”

“You are,” Becky says. Her tone is as tired as her son's used to be and Grace looks at her, really looks at her in the flickering candlelight. “But it's the last one. You're a lucky girl, so I'm sure you'll do great.”

She fans the cards out in front of her, begins shuffling them.

Grace feels the knife in her pocket, the one she took from her kitchen before she left, but leaves it there. She puts her hands on the table.

Becky deals out one card, face down, for each of them. The backing of the deck is some elaborate design of vines and flowers and if you look very closely, a pair of eyes that watch you, waiting for... this.

“Lucky,” Grace says softly. “I don't think it's ever been that.

Becky smiles slightly. The shadows in the room seem to move a little twisting into shapes that could be human, could be just tricks of the eye.

“Let's see.”

They turn their cards up.

* * *

Daniel looks up as the door opens. He doesn't seem surprised to see her there.

His wrist is handcuffed to the bed frame. It's slightly bloody, like he's been trying to work it free. He's also got a split lip that bleeds a little when he smiles at her.

“You know,” Grace says. “You have way too many fucking rooms in this house.”

“We don't even use half of them,” Daniel says. “I think they just exist so we can store all of our shit.”

There's a pile of ash at his feet, but Grace still has to ask even if she already knows the answer. “Alex?”

Daniel's eyes are red-rimmed but his voice is steady as he says, “Game's over. They cleared the board.”

“Daniel...”

“You know I don't know what made him more angry? The fact that you and I were sleeping together or that in the end, he still couldn't bring himself to kill me.”

Grace sits down on the floor next to him. He puts his free arm around her, awkwardly pulls her into his side. “I know you loved him,” she says. “I'm sorry.”

“I loved my mother too,” Daniel says. “And my sister. Maybe at least a few other members of my family. And now it's going to be like we never existed.”

“We?”

“You really think any trace of the Le Domas family is still going to be around in the morning? No, we're just going to fade from memory, a name that you think you remember but you're not sure why. Hell, you might even forget you even went through this shit once I'm gone.”

No. No. No. “No fucking way, Daniel.”

“It's okay, Grace. The first time I died, it really sucked. This time, I think it'll be a little bit easier since I'm used to it.” He shrugs. “I might not even feel it.”

“You're not going to die,” Grace says. “I won't let you.”

“Grace, I'm a Le Domas,” Daniel says. “The rules say--”

Fuck the rules, Grace thinks. Fuck them. There has to be a way around them. There has to be--

“Let's get married,” she says.

Daniel looks horrified. “No. Are you insane? You've got your whole life ahead of you.”

“Obviously,” Grace says. “And so do you. Which is why I'm not marrying into your family, you're marrying into mine. We'll start our own traditions, none of which involve killing people so we can build stupidly large houses, screw people over, and insist we have no choice in the matter.”

He blinks. “Wait? What?”

“I'm not cheating.” Grace raises her voice. “I'm just bending the rules a little. It's still a win,” she says.

Daniel shakes his head. “It's not going to work.”

“Yes, it is,” she says. “Now scoot over. We need to get some sleep so I can find the key to the handcuffs in the morning and we can get the hell out of here.”

“Grace--”

“I love you,”she says. “I don't know exactly when it happened or if it ever would have happened if I hadn't had to redo my life, but I love you here and now and we're going to win this fucking game and never play another one as long as we live.”

“This isn't--” and Daniel stops, leans over and kisses her. “I love you too,” he says. “If I'm not around in the morning, you were an amazing fucking woman and I still don't think you're completely sane, but that's actually kind of a turn-on.”

“Shut up and go to sleep,” she says and grasps his hand, so tightly. There's still no ring, but there is a promise and if she has to redo this a thousand times to live up to it, she will.

Grace closes her eyes, falls asleep to Daniel's breathing, his heartbeat, his life.

* * *

He's still there when she opens her eyes again.

It's a new day.

**Author's Note:**

> Doppelkopf - a team game in which the initial two person pairing is not known from the start. Can be formed by Marriage.  
> Königrufen - there are no fixed partners, but contracts can determine which Kings are called.  
> Oh Hell (Devil's Bridge Variation) - you bid not by knowing your own card, but by knowing your opponent's.  
> Ombre - The Man competes against two players to win the most tricks.


End file.
